Dom or Spit for New England Surf

09-02-2012, 06:08 PM

Looking for a board to surf in Waist to HH and the occasional OH+ we see a few times a year. What do you all think would be better for New England surf, waves here are inconsistent and often lack the push you see in the pacific. Be surfing beaches and points, nothing to hollow unless I travel.

I honestly don't think it would make an enormous difference. It's almost a "toss a coin" decision. If it was me, I'd choose on aesthetics. Which do you think is the cooler looking board?

As an eg, I own a 6'4" Dom which is probably a touch overfoamed as an all round board for my weight, but makes it fantastic in small conditions (which is what I bought if for). Given its intended small wave niche, you would think it would struggle in bigger surf. Not so. I've surfed that board in at least 1.5X overhead and it's surfed it fine. I can remember one occasion where I wanted to do a snap to tube maneovre on a 1.5X overhead, hollow days and the volume of the board kept the board going forward when it should have been snapping underneath me, but the fact I can remember that one occasion only where the board wasn't ideal in slightly bigger conditions says it all really - it's a fantastic alrounder for small to average conditions, which can head out and work for you on slightly bigger days. It's not the board for you for 2x overhead + though. The Spit will work basically the same, but with maybe some finer edge control for the medium to bigger days, offset by the lesser float/drive off the tail for smaller days.

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I honestly don't think it would make an enormous difference. It's almost a "toss a coin" decision. If it was me, I'd choose on aesthetics. Which do you think is the cooler looking board?

As an eg, I own a 6'4" Dom which is probably a touch overfoamed as an all round board for my weight, but makes it fantastic in small conditions (which is what I bought if for). Given its intended small wave niche, you would think it would struggle in bigger surf. Not so. I've surfed that board in at least 1.5X overhead and it's surfed it fine. I can remember one occasion where I wanted to do a snap to tube maneovre on a 1.5X overhead, hollow days and the volume of the board kept the board going forward when it should have been snapping underneath me, but the fact I can remember that one occasion only where the board wasn't ideal in slightly bigger conditions says it all really - it's a fantastic alrounder for small to average conditions, which can head out and work for you on slightly bigger days. It's not the board for you for 2x overhead + though. The Spit will work basically the same, but with maybe some finer edge control for the medium to bigger days, offset by the lesser float/drive off the tail for smaller days.

we don't see X2 Overhead in new england so that shouldn't be an issue. every now and then you get a swell with over head plus, typically it will be used waist to head high. I weight 170lbs and wear a 5/4 in the winter so I was thinking about getting the DOM or the SPIT in a 6'0" as an intermediate surfer

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i'd say they float the same.. go 5'10 or 5'8 i'm your weight and surf long island.. i have a 5'8 dom.. high intermediate/advanced depending on the day.. i find it struggles on the low period soft waist+ days for sure.. waist+ with some punch it goes great but now my razor fills those days

Agreed here with everybody. The 5'10" Spit will be a good choice for those those gutless waves and will perform on the bigger stuff whereas the Dominator might have a bit too much chunk in the tail for the better steeper days

The lighter EPS cores are a little more bouyant than PU foam, but they don't have that corky feeling that some EPS/Epoxy boards have.
I'd ride the same volumes in PU.

On the score of buoyancy I want add some perspective. On average the FST boards are around 1kg lighter than an average board in the sizes I ride. My 6'2 JS King Pin is roughly 3.5kg and my 6'2 HF is around 2.5...sounds like it's so much more buoyant, doesn't it? Even feels like it if you push down on the board with your hand, but it's not really. Add my 90kgs and an extra 1kg is about 1.1% roughly saved. You have to consider the total of your weight plus the board's. So saving 1% means not much in terms of volume that you could reduce. So if I ride a 33L PU board I could afford to lose 0.33L of volume to maintain the same buoyancy, 32.67L. Sometimes numbers really make the picture clearer.

I'd also vote for a spitfire...it has a much better wave range than the dom, surfs the pocket better and turns quicker. It still grovels well it only loses to the dom just a bit when it gets down to slow weak knee high waves.

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Another vote for the Spitfire - although an El Fuego would be amazing in most of what you get. Come to think of it, I can't think of a single day in the years I was there that I would not have gone out on either a Spitfire or an El Fuego. Definitely go with a bit more foam since most of the time the waves are not all that punchy - at least compared to places like some of the lucky folks on this board get to surf every day. (I'm looking at all the Aussies!)

My personal vote is the Dominator because you get a bit more push back from the Dominator tail on mushy days. I am from Maine and I always had the Dom in my quiver. If I were living there permanently i would always have the dominator, sweet potato and alternator in my quiver. They blend into one another perfectly.

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Browndog, I could have written your first couple posts... What size Spitfire did you end up with?

I'm 6' & 170, surf NH but my age may be a factor for sizing. My odometer just rolled over 50 and some of the miles were hard. The volume calculator puts me at a 41/50 if I stay in the middle of the skill and fitness range (that said, I've been on a 33-35 L board during this swell). I either need to get better, in better shape, lighter or younger to get into the 5'10" range that is being recommended for you, although there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in the specs between the 5'10" and the 6'0".

I'm thinking a baked potato/spitfire combo. I rode a 5'9" baked a couple times in knee to waist junk conditions and loved it. I probably could have gone smaller as I had no problems catching waves. I may see if I can try a 5'7" to see if it would handle smaller weak slop while keeping the wave count high.